Rotary regenerative heat exchangers or pre-heaters are commonly used to recover heat from various combustion and chemical reaction processes, including those associated with the production of synthesis gas (also referred to as Syngas). Conventional rotary regenerative heat exchangers have a rotor mounted in a housing that defines an inlet duct and an outlet duct for the flow of heated flue gases through the heat exchanger. The housing further defines another set of inlet ducts and outlet ducts for the flow of gas streams that receive the recovered heat energy. The rotor has radial partitions or diaphragms defining compartments therebetween for supporting baskets or frames to hold heat transfer sheets. Typically, the rotor and baskets are manufactured from a metallic materials.
However, in very high temperature applications (e.g., temperatures exceeding 2100 degrees Fahrenheit (1149 degrees Celsius)), for example in Syngas production systems, typical rotary regenerative heat exchangers have insufficient strength and oxidation can occur on the surfaces thereof. As a result, typical rotary regenerative heat exchangers can fail to operate at such high temperatures.
Thus, there is a need for an improved rotary pre-heater that can withstand high temperature operation.